Hello 2010

Last updated on September 22nd, 2014 at 03:20 pm.

Happy new year everybody, I hope 2010 see’s you well!

I’ve been away from Brisbane since the 20th of December. So far I’ve been in Wagga and Batemans Bay, soon I’ll be on my way to Melbourne as well. It’s been a great break, but today I’ve had to sit down and get back to work.

This Christmas I got a couple of things that I would like to focus on more this year.

The first is from my parents, a Taurus T-DI box for my bass guitars that has a built-in pre-amp. The idea here is that when I play bass at church, or anywhere else with a PA system, I don’t need to take my amp. It doesn’t matter whether I’m playing accoustic or electric, I just take the DI box and plug my guitar into it, then from it to the PA system. There are already plenty of DI boxes at church which I normally use, but the Taurus DI box has a pre-amp built into it. This is a particularly useful thing as it gives me extra control over the volume and tone of my bass from where I am, and allows me to use the electric bass directly through the PA system more effectively.

The timing is perfect as my old Peavey bass amp has actually just died so I need to get a new amp anyway, but this is a very useful interim device.

So what I would like to do this year is focus on my music more. Every year I go through 4 to 6 months of frequent playing, then 6 where I don’t play much at all. I’d like to keep going all year!

The second thing is something I got myself a couple of days ago, a Canon EOS 500D Digital SLR camera. I’ve been experimenting with photography for years, but I’ve only ever had point-and-shoot style cameras, this is the first DSLR I’ve ever owned. I have been considering getting a high definition digital video camera for a while now, but decided not to because none of them in my price range actually take decent video. After much contemplation, I decided to go the still camera route, and focus on my still photography more. When picking a DSLR though, I kept the video in mind, and the Canon EOS 500D jumped out at me as it takes HD video as well, for around the same price as the video cameras I was looking at. I also tossed up going with the 50D, but it really was a bit too expensive for me at the moment as a beginner in the DSLR arena and doesn’t offer the HD video option, maybe in a year or so (excuse me while I day dream for a bit).

I got it in a kit with 2 lenses, an 18-55mm IS lense and a 55-250mm IS lense, it ended up being $1599 with a backpack bag from Camera House. I also got an 8gb SD card with it, but I’m probably going to need to get a 16gb or 32gb one if I want to shoot in RAW format. From my experimenting so far, the 18-55mm lense seems to be the better lense, but I’m definitely going to have to get myself a 1.4 f-stop lense at some point as neither of the lenses it came with are very good for low light photography unless the flash can be used.

Then again, every time I use it I think of something else I want to get for it!

I’ve spent the past few days playing around with it a lot and I’ve got a number of shots to put up on Flickr for you to check out. I just have very little mobile reception here in Batemans Bay, so they will have to wait until I get to Melbourne, or somewhere else.

So the other thing I would like to focus on this year is my photography.

I’ve decided that I want to focus on these things because everything else I do is work related in some context or other, so even when I’m doing one of my hobbies, it usually ends up being work related somehow. Personally I think thats a good thing since it means I enjoy what I do and I can make money from my hobbies. I just think I’d like to start looking at some different things and focusing on some of my other hobbies and developing them further.

I’m sure I can tie photography into TerraMedia anyway once I get better 😉

I have a big project under way at the moment, but once I get a chance, I’ll do a write up on the camera so far (I am very impressed!), and once I get home and test out the DI box, I’ll put up a write up on it too! I’m looking forward to it! This year is going to be one interesting year and I’m really looking forward to it!

[…] Previously I mentioned being given a Taurus T-Di Bass Preamp and DI-Box for Christmas by my parents. I also promised I would do a write up about it. I’ve been meaning to do it for quite a while – almost 4 months. […]